The first sewing machine in my life was my mother's Singer 301. I learned to sew on it when I was 10 and that was all I knew until I was married at 19 and my husband purchased a Singer sewing machine as his wedding gift to me. I honestly can't even remember the model of that machine. It was a 1969 model and every time I used it I would have to take it in to have it serviced. It was a pain in the backside. I had it to the repair man over a dozen times in the first year. Finally he took it completely apart and reassembled it. He told me they had put it together wrong when they manufactured it and that it should be better now. It wasn't. One day in a fit of frustration I took it out to the field behind the house and and used my husbands shotgun on it. It gave me more pleasure in those few minutes than it had in all the time since first attempting to sew on it. I saved my pennies and purchased an old Singer 301 and still have it but also have had several wonderful machines since. Ann in TN